Graduate School Interim Dean Leslie Reynolds has appointed Jennifer Ho director of the Center for Humanities and the Arts (CHA) for a three-year term effective Aug. 19.
CHA, housed within the Graduate School, supports research and creative work in the arts and humanities for faculty and graduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Music, the University Libraries and the College of Media, Communication and Information (CMCI).
“As a committed humanities scholar who is passionate about the arts, I am excited about taking on a leadership position that promotes the scholarship of humanists and artists at CU Boulder to the Boulder community, Colorado and nationwide,” Ho said.
Jennifer Ho
CHA provides selected faculty in the humanities and the arts a semester off from teaching to study innovative approaches for promoting scholarship and rejuvenating teaching. CHA also provides grants and fellowships for graduate students and organizes symposia, workshops and visits from prominent intellectuals and artists to stimulate new research.
“I am also eager to provide mentorship to graduate students and junior faculty in the arts and humanities, to help ensure the next generation of humanists and artists working inside and outside of academia,” Ho added.
Ho will leave her positions as professor of English and comparative literature and associate director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While at UNC Chapel Hill, she has taught courses in Asian American literature, multiethnic American literature and contemporary American literature. Her research interests are in critical race theory, antiracism and narratology. In addition to her appointment as director of CHA, Ho has been appointed professor of ethnic studies in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Ho received master’s and doctoral degrees in English from Boston University in 1996 and 2003 and a bachelor’s degree in English from University of California at Santa Barbara in 1992. She is the author of Consumption and Identity in Asian American Coming-of-Age Narratives, Racial Ambiguity in Asian American Culture and Understanding Gish Jen.
The current director of CHA, Helmut Muller-Sievers, will serve as CHA director until Ho’s arrival in August and then continue in his position as professor of German, where his research focuses on the interrelations of literature, science, and philosophy, and with the history of philology and interpretation.
“During my time as the interim dean of the Graduate School, I’ve been impressed with the work that CHA does to promote and support research and scholarship in the humanities and the arts,” Reynolds said. “I want to welcome Jennifer to CHA and thank Helmut for his leadership throughout his tenure at the center.”
